Gorgeous sailing day

After driving for 5 hrs on Friday thru the Weekend traffic, we had a gorgeous sailing day on Saturday. On Bft 4-5 winds and 1m waves we were able to do constant 6kn on a beam reach towards N. After ca 10nm we did a gybe and tried to heave to, which worked but the SOG was between 1-2kn. Unfortunately I didn't try to keep the boat 30° to wind, but it was rather on the beam, and also didn't watch if the speed was forward or sideways - homework for next time. We returned home on a close reach, while the wind came down to force 3-4.  On the way back we had to avoid a couple of regattas taking place, it's incredible how fast the small boats can go!

All the maneuvers of taking up/down the sails were done with Susie, so pretty much single-handed.

Total of 22nm in 4:40hrs. 


https://boating.page.link/nHyr






Projects projects projects

Have used this weekend to go to the boat (alone!) and do some projects. 

First off, I've replaced the somehow leaking toilet with a shiny new Jabsco small-bowl. Of course it wasn't plug'n'play - I had to cut off a piece of the outpipe since it was sitting on the thru-hull. With that I also had to shorten the connecting hose, but I had to replace the intake hose with a longer one. But it's done and I'm extremely happy about this one.




Secondly, I've replaced the old VHF with a Standard Horizon GX2200e, which I could program with my MMSI and ATIS codes - and can also see the AIS targets on it. 



Thirdly, o finally decided to get a manual bilge pump - it's a Whale Gusher Urchin that I'll fix on a glass-fiber wall in the cockpit and connect to the same output as the electrical bilge pump. 

I also discovered the navigation lights weren't working, and after hours of troubleshooting it turned out to be a simple electrical contact problem in the knob. Initially I suspected the breakers, since none of the 3 ones for the navigation lights had any voltage on them - but all others did - but it turns out only the three nav breakers are after the circuit knob, while all the other breakers are before the knobs, so always have voltage on them.